While I like those photos of abandoned asylums (and really most of the “abandoned” genre), the top photo and several of the others are too cute by half. The tricycle is obviously staged, as is the TV in #21.

I have a real problem with this from a photographic/documentarian perspective. One should leave the setting as it was found, as undisturbed as possible. Someone online shared a before/after photo recently of an abandoned mansion that had been trashed by the rash of Urban Explorers who’d come through for some cool photos.

Yes, it’s abandoned, but photographers should work with what’s available, not move stuff around to get better compositions, thereby destroying the possibility for future photographers to experience what the reality of that abandonment was.

Just like you wouldn’t go to a nature shoot and move around a bunch of rocks (hopefully) to get a better composition.

Maybe that’s just me.

Edit: Here’s the article I mentioned earlier, with a before/after photo